Apparatus for the production of copra



March 8, 1932. P. D. GOOD APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF COPRA Inventor, Eercy .27. 6 0065,

per

f fizm% Aazarney.

Filed Oct.

drying apparatus in longitudinal section, paring ofi'the dark skin, this'effects asaving Patented; Mans, 1932 i I i V V I .UNITEE ST rnncvn. eoonor 5m raxannnaun, NEW crurirnn mama Fort rnnrrtonudrron or COBRA Application filed October 21, 1929.; Serial No. 401,566.

In this specification, and the accompany-l V Figure 2 is an outside elevationof the left ing drawings, I ,Lshall describe-and show a hand portion of the above apparatus; preferred. manner of utilizing my invention Figure 3 is an outsideelevation of the re- ,1 and the apparatus therefor, and specifically verse side of the left .hand portion of the i5 mention certain of its-more important ob-i apparatusshown in-FigsJl and2; and jects. I do not limit myself, however, to the Figure a is a plan view in horizontal secparticular manner of utilizing my invention tion of the right hand upperportion of the so set forth, since various modifications and apparatus shown in Fig. 1,.the section being changes may be made without departing taken in thejplane H ofindicatedon the 10 from the, spirit of the inventionas herein latter figure. Y r 7 after claimed; and objects and advantages, Similar reference numeralsrefer to similar other than those specifically mentioned, are parts throughout the several views. c included withinits scope. I desire that only The three principal methods that have been To s such limitations shall be placedlupon the inemployed hitherto for dryingcopra, are first,

15 vention claimed as are imposed by the prior exposing the coconut meats to the direct heat art. T p V i of the. sun for two or three days; second,.dry

My invention relates'to processes for drying the meats in a smoke house forabout two:

ing the meat of coconuts for the production days; and, third, kiln-drying the meats. for

of copra, and apparatus therefor. Among about oneday. All" of these bulk-drying its principal objects are: first, to devise a systems commonly produce indifi'erently processz'for more satisfactorily producing dried copra, the product being apt to be copra of highqualityf second,to.i provide more or less damp, and. sometime being means for materially reducing the/time repartly burnt and partly mouldy. They afre quired for drying copra, andfor thereby pre wasteful for these reasons,and the labor cost venting fermentation and the growth of is relatively high. p Furthermore copra -pro mould during thefdryingprocess; third, to ducedby any of these processes is likely to be eifect a large reduction in the cost of laborofson ewhat, inferior, quality by reason of required for drying, by the utilization ofa containing the fatty acids that, resultrfrom substantially continuous process and suitable fermentation during the slow drying. 1, apparatus therefor; and, fourth,to accom- My ;inventi0n y'provides 4 simple means plish the foregoing by means of arelatively whereby hygenic copra may be produced: di 7 simple process and inexpensive apparatus. rectlyatthe plantation by a'de'siccating proc- In the accompanying drawings I have ess, at relatively small cost. The product of illustrated apreferred form of apparatus for the process is free from fatty acids, burnt accomplishing the final steps of my improved material,mould, or other deleterious matter. process. It is tobe understood that the draw- Oil andflour produced from such a product 7 iings are purely diagrammatic however, and is exceptionally 'pure, and, in consequence,

not pictorial. The parts have not been drawn the product commandsa relati'velyhigh price, to .-scale,-and certain proportionsi'havej been The use of-the process,-si-nce it .can 'be emmuch distorted for the sake of clearness in ployed directly at the plantation, makesis describing and imparting a knowledge of possible to efi'ect a further savingby reducthe invention. .lvVith-the knowledgeidisclosed ing transportation expense. V however, it will be-a simple-matter 'for lany 'Proceeding nowto a detailed descriptronof.

45 person who is skilledin this art to design my improvedprocess,"l have discovered that, r

apparatus suitable 'for ,utilizing myrinvenaft-er thecoconutsare shelled, the dark skin 5 1 tionunderany ordinary circumstances. 1' p covering the meats may be most-advanta' 'R'eferring to the drawings V geously removed by means of wire-brushlng. Figure. lis an cl vation of my improvedxCompared 'withthe hitherto used method of taken in the plane of lihel- -l of Fig. 4; I bf both labor and material. Power rotated PATENT OFFICE v f c i wire-brush wheels are preferable for this purpose. The skinned nuts are washed and afterwards broken, and the broken nut-meats are dumped into the intake hopper of my machine. Beneath this hopper is a conveying belt 6, for removing the contents from the bottom of the hopper through the gap 7. The nut meats are spread over the conveyor belt in a fairly thin layer by means of the scraper edge 8. They are dumped off the left hand end of the conveyor belt, and fall between a pair of longitudinally corrugated crushing rolls 9. These rolls takezthe place ofshredding or slicing apparatus, hitherto commonly employed for producing desiccated copra. They squeeze out a large portion of the moisture contained in the meats, and reduce the latferhto. the state of more or less finely divided P. P-

The crushing rolls are located above dryin -box 10, at one end thereof. Below the re 5, Within the box, are a plurality of horizontal and/orinclined conveying belts 11 of wire screen fabric, mounted upon rotatable rollers 12 at their respective ends. These screen belts are disposed vertically in staggered arrangement as shown in the drawings, and are spaced'to provide for a current of air 'therebetween. 'One end of each of these screen beltsis closeto'the wall of the drying box, andthe opposite end is spaced therefrom. Between theupper and lower portions of each of the'screen-belts, except the lowermost, risa horizontal partition or 'bafile 13, extendingbetween the respective rollers 12 and co-extensive with-the width of the drying box. The uppermost of these 'bafiles has anupstandingflange 14 co-extensive with its periphery, so as to constitute a shallow tray. A-n outlet pipe 15, leading to the outside of the'drying'box, serves to drain this tray.

'Thecoconutmeat, after being crushed by rolls-9, drops upon the upper screen-belt 11 and is carriedthereby to the other end of the drying box. It is then dumped upon the Screen-belt immediately below and carried back to the left hand end of the drying-box, Where it is again dumped upon alower screen-belt, etc., the respective screen-belts traveling slowly in the directions indicated by arrows '16. The completely dried copra is finely dumped from the lowermost screenbeltagainst a bafile plate 17, and then drops throngha bottom orifice 18 of the drying-box into suitable receptacles, or upon a conveying belt 'forcarryingaway the finished product. Space beneath the drying box is provided for this purpose, as by mounting it upon suitable legs 19.

The drying of the copra is accomplished by means of a creed draft of heated air. The dry air entersthe drying-box at the bottom at one end, through an air inlet 20. The course of the air through the drying-box is controlled by the bafiles 13, and is as indicated by arrows 21. The air gradually becomes cooled and moi stare-laden, and is finally discharged through the outlet 22.

It, will be noted that the drying arrangement described is a counter-current apparatus. That is to say, the air flow at all times is in a direction opposite to the direction in which the copra is moving. This is for the reason that the incoming raw copra is both wet and cool. It becomes gradually heated and dried duringits passage through the dry ing box. The hot dry air, entering through inlet 20, comes in'contact first with the nearly dry copra, and removes the last traces of moisture therefrom. The air picks up more and more moisture as it progresses through the drying box, and leaves through outlet 22 heavily laden with moisture. Itwill also'bc noted. that liquid squeezed out of the raw coconut meats by rollers 9 will fall into the upper bafiie tray, directly below the top screen-belt, and be discharged therefrom through pipe By the time the copra has reachedthe right hand end of the upper screen-belt, it will have ceased to drip, and its further drying must be accomplished by the heated air current. 1

All ofthe moving parts of the abovedescribed apparatus must have a'relatively slow motion, and Ihave indicated a simple method for accomplishing this by means of a me chanical drive. The moving parts are positively geared together to work at pre-determined relative speeds. Powermay be applied to the apparatus by means of the motor 23. m

worm 24, and worm-wheel 25, toshaft 26 of one of the crushing rolls. The opposite ends of the crushing roll shafts are mutually engaged through spur gears 27. A sprocket. 28 is mounted upon this same end of shaft 26, andit drives a similar sprocket 29 on shaft 30 of the second screen-belt, by means of the chain 31. Another sprocket 32 is mounted upon this end of shaft 30, and it drives a similar sprocket 33 on screen belt shaft 34., by means of the chain 35.

Similarly a sprocket 36 on crushing roll shaft 37 drives screen-belt shaft 38b means of a chain 39; and a sprocket 40 on shaft drives screen-belt shaft 41 by means of sprocket 42 and'chain 43.

Shaft 44 of conveyor belt 6 is driven from crushing roll shaft 26 by means of the-sprockets 45 and chain 46.

It is desirable to mount one of the crushing rolls in yieldable bearings, to provide against breakage or stoppage due to overloading the rolls momentarily, as when uncrushable materialis being discharged upon them. This can be easily accomplished by mounting shaft 37 in slidable bearings at each end, as indicated at 47 in Fig. 3. These bearings are adapted to slide horizontally between guides ,48, .for varying the distance be tween the rolls; The bearings carry studs 49, slidably projecting through cross-bars of the guides. Helical compression springs 51 surround the studs and engage the bearings and the cross-bars under compressiom Nuts 52 upon the studs cooperate with springs 51, and serve to positionthe shaft to provide the normal gap between the crushing rolls. The arrangement thus provides for with the drying-box. "fies 13 remain as shown, and the air current the yielding of one of the rolls, by further compression of springs 31, when uncrushable material is passed between them, and prevents damaging the apparatus or stopping its operation.

As indicated above, myapparatus is susceptible of various minor changes, such as will readily occur to those skilled in the art to meet special conditions or to satisfy personal preferences. Thus, if. preferred, screen-belts 11 can be co-extensive in length In such case the bafpasses up around thefar end of the, baffle plate, between it and the corresponding roller, to the underside of the screen-belt, and through the interstices therein and between the particles of copra thereon. Or the arrangement of the screen-belts mayremain as shown, and baflies 13 may be shortened at the far end to allow the air current to divide; aportion of the current going around the roller andiover the top of the screen,'anda portion passing between the roller and the baffle plate to the underside of the -screen-.

belt. chanical power and as desired. 7 A

I have found that the incoming air current should be at a temperature of approximately 170 degrees FahrQorhigher, to give satisfac- Obviously anysuitable form of megearing may be employed tory results, and the air should be thoroughlydried. Thereare manysuitable forms of air heaters available for the purpose, and

the air heater perse does not form a part of the present invention although some suitable form is essential for its operation. A firetube boiler, burning the husks and shells of the coconuts, can be used for the purpose, and

a blower can beiarranged for forcing air'f around the fire tubes for heating and drying it andfor then discharging it into air inlet 20 I of the drying box. Or a boiler similarly fired by-h'usks and shells can be made to gencrate steam, and the air can be dried andheatcoils fed from the boiler. 7

From the foregoing'description it will be obvious that a large saving of labor can be accomplished by means ofmy above described ed in a suitable air heater employing steam very little attention, with a further relatively large saving in the labor cost. Again, the process effects avery substantial savingin material by reason of the fact that very little paratus enablesit to be used directly at the plantations with a substantial saving of transportation costs, since only the finished product is shipped.

Having thus fully described my invention, in a manner that will enable those skilled in the art to utilize it to the fullest extent, I claim:

1. Apparatus ofthecharacter described, comprising, a drying box; a plurality of horizontal continuous perforate belted convey.-

ors respectively supported by and extending I between pairs of rollers, spaced within said box in superposed longitudinally staggered arrangement; horizontal baflies, co-extensive with the width of said'box and extending between the upper and lower portions of the respective conveyors, adjacent said lower portions and spaced from said upper portions; means for causing said conveyors to movebetween allbut thelowest pair of said rollers,

continuously in directions that are alternately opposite with respect to each other; means for depositing material upon the upperconveyor; means that include said staggered arrangement for discharging material from each conveyor but the lowest, upon the conveyor directly below; and means for'removing said material from the lowest conveyor to the exterior of the box; said box being adapted for permittingv a current of air to flow therethroughbetweensaid bafiles in a zig-zag manner, from the bottom to the top,

in directions opposite to the motion of the adjacent conveyors.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1, where in the upper baffle consists of a pan having means associated therewith for keeping it 7 drained.. r PERCY D. GOOD.

process. A labor saving can be effected in the r y first place by the use of revolving wire brushes for removingthe dark skin covering the coconut meats, as compared withthe previously used method ,of hand-paring 1 with -knives'. The crushing and drying apparatus 7 I V 1s automatic in its operation and requlres 

